Kurt Warner's Three Bases Of Power In Professional Sports

1. On the scale of managerial incompetence, I would rate Kurt Warner in the section of cheerleader for multiple reasons, the largest being that all of his coaches said that he was always a “teammate first” and focused on the success of his team as opposed to his own success. An example of this happening was during practice when Warner fumbled a bad snap from the center. After the play was over and Warner returned to the sidelines, his quarterback coach lit into him for having dropped the ball and yelled at him for being a terrible football player for a few seconds. While Warner could have blamed the center for the fumble and defended himself, he instead took the blame upon himself and took the criticism from his coaches. Another time that Warner

Kurt Warner predominately displayed three bases of power in his tenure in the NFL, they were Expert, Referent and Legitimate power. To be a professional athlete in any sport, a person must be proficient in all aspects of their position in that sport, Kurt Warner was no exception. By using rational persuasion, Warner was able to convince his coaches that he was the best quarterback on the team and as such, deserved the starting position. This was a soft tactic however was successful at winning him the spot. The next base that Warner used significantly was the legitimized power. In the game of football, the quarterback is responsible for the offensive performance of the team. He used the legitimized base as a hard tactic as he used his standing as the quarterback to put himself into the position of authority to lead his teammates. The last, and arguably most important base that Warner used was the referent base of power. Warner used the referent power of leadership by creating strong personal relationships with his teammates and using them to motivate the other players to perform better. He led his teammates, which he had made into his friends, by example. Warner would consistently take massive hits and allow himself to get beaten up so that his team would become better and

Because Warner never set out with a formal plan for developing his teammates, he falls into the category of Leadership Coach. As a coach, Warner was careful to interact with each of his teammates personally and to get to know them and how they functioned. He was able to earn the trust of his teammates through his work ethic and never-give-up attitude that he played with on a weekly basis. Warner would allow himself to be tackled again and again in an effort to better his team and make big plays. Outside of football, Warner acts informally again as the adoptive father of his wife’s child, as a selfless philanthropist and a caring husband. His leadership style as a Leadership Coach was for the most part successful as he led three teams to the Super Bowl and was named MVP and NFL Man of the Year. Wide Receiver, Larry Fitzgerald also stated on multiple occasions that Warner was able to make him want to be not only a better football player for himself, but to be the best football player he could be, for the sake of his teammates on the Arizona Cardinals. His impact on Fitzgerald is representative of how he was able to step in a truly lead a team to be the best that it could